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Bird Nerding Notes: Early April

H. Bradford

4/10/17

I’ve been out quite a bit in the past few weeks in pursuit of birds. One adventure was with my mother, but I’ve been trying to go out daily for at least some birding. I’ve checked out Wisconsin Point, the Western Waterfront Trail, and Loons Foot Landing for birds and all three of them have yielded some new birds for my list. It has been an exciting adventure, as it has helped me to realize all of the birds that are around me that I never really noticed before. Like I’ve noted before, it is like an endless scavenger hunt.

Wisconsin Point:

My first adventure on Wisconsin Point yielded one new species. I found some common mergansers close to shore. Of course, they were quick to swim away, but it was neat to see a new bird. I visited for several days in a row, noting many common mergansers, even if they were far away from the shore. Because the birds are pretty shy, it is no wonder that I have never noticed them in all of the years that I have visited Wisconsin point. Otherwise, a large flock of seagulls had assembled on a sheet of ice, which slowly melted over the course of a week. I am not experienced enough to identify different species of seagulls, which all look pretty similar to me. Among the seagulls were some immature bald eagles.

Western Waterfront Trail:

The Western Waterfront Trail yielded several other species of birds. Again, the birds were spotted from a distance and only identified by zooming in on the photos I had taken. I noted a Common golden eye and Hooded merganser while hiking along the trail. Again, the birds were shy and even though I was quite a distance away from them, they were quick to move along. I hike on the Western Waterfront Trail dozens of times during the year but have never noticed these birds before. I hiked the trail later in the week and again spotted a flotilla of these same birds.

Loon’s Foot Landing:

My best birding has been at Loon’s Foot Landing in Superior. I have spotted Hooded mergansers, common mergansers, Northern shoveler, pied grebe, Common goldeneye, bufflehead ducks, Ring necked ducks, green winged teal, and what appeared to be Greater scaup. These waterfowl seem to enjoy hanging out together in a quiet corner behind some cattails. It makes photographing them a bit of challenge since they are safely tucked away quite a distance from the trail. I also saw my first Great blue heron of the season fly overhead.

Ring-necked duck

Pied-billed grebes

Green winged teal, Northern shoveler, and Ring necked duck

Hooded merganser

Beyond the waterfowl were some interesting passerine birds. While walking back to my car, I spotted what appeared to be a robin sized bird in the brush near the shore. I followed the bird, trying to get a closer look. It was quick and active, but finally slowed down long enough to take a photo. It turned out to be a fox sparrow, which was pretty neat. I am slowly learning different kinds of sparrows, which until this year all seemed like ordinary brown birds that didn’t warrant much attention. The Fox sparrow was unique because of its gray and rust colored plumage and its large size compared to other sparrows. When I was following it, I thought maybe it was a female red winged blackbird. Only with the help of the camera was I able to identify it. Since then, I have visited Loon’s Foot Landing almost daily. While I have mostly noted the same birds each day, today I happened to see an interesting bird on top of a tree. I assumed it might be a robin, but upon closer inspection it was gray in color with a sharp beak and black band by its eyes. The mysterious bird appeared to be a Northern shrike! These birds are interesting, since they are carnivorous song birds that impale their prey on barbed wire and thorns. The bird is not very large, but manages to use its sharp beak to kill smaller birds, rodents, insects, etc. The bird is nicknamed the butcher bird because it is known to store meat in holes or on wires. I have also seen a Northern flicker, Northern cardinals, chickadees, and red winged blackbirds at this spot.

Conclusion:

It has been fun going out and observing birds. I suppose that my friends have been a little bored, as I’ve dragged them along on some of my adventures. One of the most fun aspects of birding is the realization that there are all these interesting birds around us all of the time, but for years, they went unnoticed and unnamed. Learning to identify new birds is a bit like learning a new language. It opens up a whole new reality. It is the same with learning anything new. Learning to identify ferns, butterflies, amphibians, trees, etc. opens one up to the unique characteristics of the universe around us. The life around us is usually the backdrop of our own lives. It is just the setting, full of unnoticed extras. To know the names of birds, their habits, their songs, and that they were there all along…is a small peak into the vastness of our universe and the richness of the life of this planet.

Bird Nerd Notes: Early Spring Birding

H. Bradford

4/1/17

When I was a kid, I never had much interest in birds. My grandma Bradford kept a feeder, which was visiting by pine grosbeaks and evening grosbeaks. My grandpa Bradford would feed the ducks near his house old bread or cracked corn. My grandma Walli loved bluebirds. Growing up in the country and on a lake, birds were a part of rural life. Birds were interesting, but never caught my attention. Oddly enough, it was plants that captured my attention. I remember in the first and second grade, I would draw pictures of the plants that I found growing in the woods near my home. I folded these pages in half, making botanical guides. I wanted to be a botanist. Birds didn’t interest me much at all.

I enjoy trying new hobbies, so my new year’s resolution in 2016 was to try birding as a new hobby. I simply wanted to try something new and expand my knowledge into a new frontier. My first birding adventure was pretty lackluster. I went to Jay Cooke State Park for a New Year’s birding hike, but we only saw chickadees. However, later that month a wayward Ivory billed gull appeared in Duluth. I set out early one morning before my work meeting to try to find it. Spotting it and then being joined by other birders….all older people with fancy cameras and binoculars, was a neat experience. We were all there for the same thing…though me with a lot less gear. (I do have a camera and binoculars now, but certainly not expensive and i really, really wish I had more ability to zoom… ) I think what really cemented this hobby was my trip to Africa, where I saw over 150 species of birds. But, birding doesn’t have to involve travel or expensive gear. It can happen in the backyard or in nearby parks.

I am still learning to identify birds and I am not terribly studious in my approach. I treat this hobby more like an endless scavenger hunt. It is exciting to add new birds to my list. In the process of searching for birds, I learn more about them, how to identify them, when and where to find them, etc. So, it is experiential learning. It mostly involves seeing the swift departure of some unknown bird and the disappointment that I did not identify it in time. That happened to me several times today. But, when I do find a new bird, it is great! Sometimes, I see a bird, but I don’t have my binoculars or camera. Again, it is a missed opportunity! Another frustrating aspect of this hobby is that most people my age…are pretty indifferent to birds. So, I feel like a bird nerd…who prattles on about some bird that no one cares about. I have to monitor myself to make sure I don’t bore others or put them off with this hobby that they have no interest in.

No birds. The story of my March birding endeavors.

One thing that I have learned this month is that early March is sort of the doldrums of birding. Until this year, I never really paid attention to what birds are around and when. Sure, I always noticed the spring and fall migrations, but I never really paid that close attention to the patterns of bird life around me. In early March, I went to the Sax Zim Bog. This was the last weekend that the bird center there was open for the winter season. I had visited the center in mid-February. The contrast was stark. There were far fewer birds active during my my early March visit. I saw a single gray jay, in contrast to the many gray jays I saw in February. There were no more flocks of white winged cross bills. However, I did see some pine grosbeaks at a feeder on the way out of the birding area. Even though the birds were scarce, I enjoyed taking a snowy hike with my mother. It is too bad that the Sax Zim Bog is so remote. It takes about an hour to drive there and the roads are winding, dirt country roads. Still, it is a great place to go birding.

In mid-march, I went to St. Croix State Park. The goal was to try to do some birding, while reaching my OTHER new year’s resolution of visiting a few more new state parks. I have never visited St. Croix State Park before, but it is only about an hour away near Hinckley, Minnesota. The park was almost entirely devoid of birds, with the exception of crows. I enjoyed a hike and had fun searching for agates in the parking lot with Dan, but as far as birding goes, it was a pretty uneventful day. However, we did spot some immature bald eagles on the way to the park. After leaving the park, we spotted two fields of what I assume were tundra swans. I assumed they were tundra swans because they migrate through Minnesota in March as they head to the arctic to nest. There were also other tundra swans spotted in area fields that week (which is why I made the guess that it could be tundra swans). To really identity the difference, I would have had to see the beak, which is often yellow at the base versus all black (for a trumpeter swan). They also have different beak shapes. Tundra swans are also more numerous, and since there were two fields of swans, it seemed logical that they would be tundra swans over the less common trumpeter swans.

These swans were too far away to perfectly identify.

Throughout the month, I went on various hikes, but did not see much bird life other than black capped chickadees, white breasted nuthatches, and crows. However, with the warm weather this week, there has suddenly been an explosion of waterfowl. Today, I went to Wisconsin Point intent on a short hike, but ended up trudging through swampy cattails to try to identify some unknown waterbirds. I am sure there were new species of birds for me to see, but I could only positively identify a few groups of Common mergansers. Still, this is a new bird for my list! Otherwise, I saw many familiar birds such as Canadian geese and red winged blackbirds. I also saw a gull with a black face, but it flew by too quickly to positively identity. In any event, the sudden appearance of so many waterfowl heralds the end of my birding doldrums this month. In all, my experience this month make me feel more attuned to the seasonal movements of birds in my region. My goal was to see 50 new species of birds this year. That may be a bit ambitious. But, I can say that I am slowly becoming a bird nerd.